One family are grateful to be alive after a massive sinkhole opened up in their back garden stopping just three feet from their home.

Lou and Denise Lambros and their four children were immediately evacuated from their Florida home after the huge hole, that measures 100 feet across and nearly 50 feet deep, suddenly appeared overnight.

A few days after the 'unreal' incident, Lou Lambros says it has sunk in that his family narrowly escaped potential tragedy and spoke of his relief that none of the neighbourhood children, who often came to play in the garden, were hurt.

Reader Comments

That's the weirdest characterization of a sinkhole event that I've heard in a long time.

We've already had someone who seemed to know what he was talking about say that a lot of that land is actually limestone - very porous and prone to this sort of cave-in. If so, stating that could make whole neighborhoods want to re-evaluate the stability of the land they are built on.

I know some sinkholes are caused by sudden pipe breaks. But this thing was perfectly round - very characteristic of natural sinkholes.

I wonder how many houses in America are built on land that really shouldn't have been built on.